PHOENIX — Few Chicago sports figures have been as popular as Bears coach Ben Johnson, perhaps their most celebrated leader since Mike Ditka, and their most successful season in over a decade vaulted his fame to a new height.
Johnson was well known in NFL circles and among Lions fans during his run as their offensive coordinator before taking this job, but not like this. Nothing beats the energy of a thrilling Bears season, and Johnson fueled it with fiery post-game speeches that peaked with him ripping his shirt off after beating the Eagles to trigger a hotdog giveaway at Wiener’s Circle.
As high as his status has soared over the past year, though, he’s still living a fairly normal life. Crowds went wild when he was shown recently at Blackhawks, Bulls and Cubs game, but he often goes unnoticed, including Sunday morning at O’Hare Airport while waiting for his flight to Phoenix for the NFL Annual Meeting.
“Someone else from the team was flying out, too, and I’m standing at the gate, and he texted me, ‘I can’t believe nobody is bothering you right now,’” Johnson said Monday in an interview with the Sun-Times at the Arizona Biltmore. “I fly right under the radar, so it’s all good.”
That’ll happen less and less the longer he coaches the Bears, whether it goes well or not. So far, coming off an 11-6 season, a playoff win over the Packers and free hotdogs, the attention has been positive.
Johnson was suited to be the front man for that, and the Bears badly needed it after predecessor Matt Eberflus’ dull demeanor and perpetual missteps. Johnson was regarded as a brilliant offensive mind, but brought an unexpected, genuine intensity, too.
He wasn’t playing a character, for example, in those raucous locker room scenes when players erupted as he pulled off his shirt or yelled, “[Expletive] the Packers… I [expletive] hate those guys.” He fed off the vibe of the moment, and it resonated.
“Nothing that happens in that locker room is done for show,” Johnson said. “It’s entirely for our players. That’s how I’ve always seen it, and that won’t change.”
He smirked.
“Maybe I should be a little bit more aware that there are cameras in there,” he said.
Hopefully not.
The spotlight is relatively new to Johnson, 39, who was a walk-on quarterback at North Carolina and relatively unknown assistant coach who rose to the coordinator level only four years ago. He married his high school sweetheart. They have a young family, and he’s been doing his best to “sync” with them now that he’s in the lighter part of his work calendar.
Other than being an NFL head coach, he’s a regular guy who became a somewhat of an overnight celebrity in the country’s third-largest market.
“The best thing about this city is there’s so much that it offers: restaurants, museums, sporting events,” Johnson said. “But as a result, there is a little more recognition, and that comes with the territory.
“People have been incredibly respectful of my family time. But I appreciate that we live in a city that loves their NFL team. That’s a pretty cool thing. I also know that when things don’t go well, they’re going to let us know about it. It just so happened that they felt like the year went pretty well last year, so there’s a lot of positive feedback coming right now.”
That’s modest. No Chicago coach or manager could touch Johnson’s approval rating.
While he didn’t seek stardom, he seems comfortable with it. He also has a healthy grasp of how fast it can flip on him if the team starts sliding. Matt Nagy won Coach of the Year in 2018, then fans chanted “Fire Nagy” at his son’s high school football game as the Bears spiraled in 2021.
It’s always easier at the beginning, when expectations are at their lowest, and they were rarely as low as they were coming out of the Eberflus debacle. Johnson won’t be playing with house money anymore. The Bears were good last season, and now, rightfully, the demand is for them to become great.
“People outside the building are going to have a win total projection and be talking Super Bowls and all that, and that’s their business,” Johnson said. “We go into our team meeting and set our goals and we’re going to stick to them. It’s really consistent with how we’ve operated.”
A little over a year into the job, Johnson has been fantastic with the dual roles of running the team and being the face of it. The Bears have occasionally found someone good at one or the other, but rarely both. He has been exactly what they needed, and he’s only getting started.